“Autumn Garden Craft Ideas”

The summer holidays are over, the kids are back to school and the days are already getting shorter. You may think that summer is best for outdoor activities and it can take a lot of effort to keep the kids occupied during the colder months. But actually, autumn in the garden presents us with masses of fun, outdoor activities for the whole family!

Autumn Leaves
There are lots of great craft activities you can do together with the family in the autumn. Firstly, trees start to change colour and the leaves fall to the ground offering up free material for endless creativity! The vibrant colours of the leaves can be transformed into wreathes, decorations and garlands in time for Christmas, amongst other things.

Save money on buying Christmas decorations by making your own, home-made, natural ones! First of all, look for a really nicely shaped leaf. Draw around it using red, green and white card and then cut round the outline. Use a hole-puncher to punch holes just below the stem of each leaf and thread through wool, tying a little knot around each one, et voila a gorgeous Christmas garland!

To make a Christmas wreath, bend an old coat hanger into a round shape. Wrap wire round small bunches of leaves already collected until you have enough to cover the round shape. Next, wrap the small bunches of leaves around the hanger frame using wire again. Finally, it can be decorated with flowers and heathers and turns out really pretty!

Gorgeous pictures and collages can be made by collecting leaves of all different shapes and sizes. With a little imagination they can be formed into beautiful birds, animals, a landscape scene or even into funny little people! All you need is card or paper and a glue stick. Leaves could be cut up to add detail to bigger leaves or even painted. They also look very pretty covered in glitter glue or placed over a pre-drawn background!

Leaves can also be painted and used as stencils to paint around or as prints. Paint the leaves in different colours then press them onto paper leaving gorgeous markings. If used on A4 or A5 sized cards they can be folded in half and transformed into beautiful home-made Christmas cards too!

For fun and games make your own headband. Draw around some leaves you like the shape of onto different coloured pieces of card. Cut carefully round them and then prepare a length of card 2.5 cm thick to go around the width of your head. Staple of cello tape the strip together and stick the leaves onto it. Then place it on your head and let the dressing up begin!

Composting
Leaves that have fallen on the ground in your garden and aren’t used for craft activities can be one of the children’s responsibilities. Make it a fun activity regularly raking up the leaves in the garden into big piles and teaching the kids how to turn them into leaf compost. This can be stored in or behind the shed and be checked on. The kids can use the compost the following year learning about nature cycles in their own back garden!

If you don’t have gardens, don’t worry, leaves can be gathered going on walks to the local park. Just take a plastic carrier bag to put them all in. Taking a daytrip to the hills is also a good idea combining a family outing with leaf collecting for the next day’s activities.

These are just a couple of suggestions to illustrate how much fun you can have with the family in the autumn, whilst having the bonus of keeping your garden leaf-free!

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